{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O59086"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O59086/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JG0167/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JG0167/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2016JG0167","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O59086","accessionNumber":"S.491-2000","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Print","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Print by Randolf Schwabe  of scene V (later scene IV) of The Sleeping Princess as performed by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1921 showing the Mazurka performed in costumes based on Polish national dress.\r\nThe Sleeping Princess was the 1921-22 production by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes of Marius Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty staged by Nicholas Sergueff with additional choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. The production was designed by Léon Bakst. \r\n","physicalDescription":"In an elaborate arched setting supported by massed barlysugar columns, open to a blue sky with white clouds, the Court watch two rows of dancers perform the Mazurka.  The dancers wear black and white costumes highlighted in blue green; to the left female courtiers wear yellow dresses, the men blue and blue green coats and at the back of this group the commedia characters of the pas de quatre may be glimpsed; to the right, surrounded by pages, sit Princess Aurora in a rose red dress, the Queen in white with a blue green cloak, the King, in armour with a rose red cloak, and the Prince in white.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Schwabe, Randolph","id":"A4939"},"association":{"text":"Artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"Gouache","id":"AAT70114"},{"text":"Printing ink","id":"AAT187371"},{"text":"Paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Printing","id":"AAT53319"},{"text":"Hand colouring","id":"AAT133555"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Print coloured by hand in watercolour and gouache on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Dance","id":"THES252984"},{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2016JG0167"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES351407"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Print coloured by hand","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"second half 1920s","earliest":"1925-01-01","latest":"1929-12-31"},"association":{"text":"Published","id":"x30682"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"340","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"419","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The print depicts the dancing of the Mazurka in Act V of Marius Petipa's ballet The Sleeping Princess, designed by Leon Bakst, music by Tchaikovsky, produced by Diaghilev Ballets Russes in 1921.  \r\nColoured state of S.492-2000.  \r\nBy the mid 1920s, there was an increasing interest in the Diaghilev Ballet and material relating to dance in general.  Beaumont had already produced a series of booklets on individual Diaghilev Ballets under the series title Impressions of the Russian Ballet and a number of wooden cut-out Diaghilev dancers in their famous roles.  He now decided to produce a series of hand coloured prints of typical scenes from the Diaghilev Ballet repertory.   He kept no records of when he began publishing the prints nor how many were produced, although he reckoned about twenty, mostly the work of Adrian Allinson, Ethelbert White and Randolf Schwabe who had also worked on Impressions of the Russian Ballet booklets and the wooden figures, and Eileen Mayo.  \r\nIn all these works, Beaumont strove to capture the exact moments of the ballet as well as artists' interpretations.  Possibly the design of each print followed the painstaking search for accuracy that had characterised the creation of the illustrations for Impressions of the Russian Ballet series, described in Bookseller at the Ballet - choosing the significant moment, watching the ballet night after night to check details of the poses and grouping (not easy when the stage was full of individual dancers and movement), going backstage to sketch scenery and borrow costumes - although some prints appear to be 'composite' rather than specific tableaux.  \r\nMost of the hand-colouring for Impressions of the Russian Ballet booklets was the work of Beaumont and his wife, Alice, and it is possible that both were also involved in colouring the prints, although eventually other artists were employed on both projects.\n\nHistorical significance: The Sleeping Princess was lavishly produced by Diaghilev at the Alhambra Theatre, London, in 1921.  Impressed by the long-running musical Chu-Chin-Chow, he hoped that a spectacular production would similarly recoup his fortunes, but London audiences, accustomed to an evening of short ballets, found a full-evening work of alternating mime and dances difficult to assimilate and the ballet failed to run the six-months required to recoup its expenses.  It was, however, a momentous production, the first full Russian classical ballet to be seen in England and Diaghilev noted ruefully that he had the right city but the wrong time; seventeen years later, in 1939, Ninette de Valois took the ballet into the repertory of the Vic-Wells (now Royal) Ballet and it became a foundation of the company's repertory.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Print by Randolph Schwabe of the Mazurka in Act V of The Sleeping Princess, Diaghilev Ballets Russes, 1921.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Beaumont, Cyril, Bookseller at the Ballet, Memoirs 1891-1929: London, C. W. Beaumont, London, 1975.  426p., ill.  Z325.B35"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["The Sleeping Beauty"],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.491-2000"],"accessionNumberNum":"491","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2000,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2001-05-18","availableToBook":true}}